This weekend has come and gone. Manchester, New Hampshire was a beautiful city. The Granite State Comic-Con was a blast. I got to sell some books and talk to hordes of lovely folks about Atom & Go, the writing process, and the joys of being an author.

In addition to meeting tons of interesting people wandering the exhibition hall, I had the privilege of meeting a fellow artist, Griffin Ess. While he has been working on a novel, his primary artistic medium is watercolor painting. He sat next to me, chatted with convention-goers, and painted. I joked I should sit with my computer and work on my craft, but decided it’s not nearly as interesting as a painting emerging from its egg.

It was great to make that connection, and a few more to boot.

The highlight of my convention may be meeting a fellow vendor who is also an aspiring author. She told me she’s going to school for a degree in creative writing. Then she asked me advice.

I was stunned. She asked advice … from me.

People often ask where I get my ideas, or how I managed to write a book (it’s funny how amazed people are that a book can actually be written), or more often, if I actually wrote the books displayed on my table. Griffin and I laughed about that last one, I mean, my grinning picture is slapped on the back of the book for the world to see.

But this girl asked advice. She asked me the best way to get the book written, how long it had taken me, and where to go after that.

For those of you wondering how long Genesis took, the answer is 8 weeks. Granted I had a broken back and couldn’t do much else. I laid on the couch in my brace like a flipped turtle and plugged away at a dream. After a couple false starts I’m back with Amazon writing and selling my book … as I told convention goers, I’m living the dream.

I think having someone ask advice is the icing on the cake. It lets me know that I can stop telling the world that I’m a care-giver who writes on the side and can proudly say, I am an author.

On that note, I’m going to get back to writing.

I’ve upgraded from my page a day mantra, and have taken up Stephen King’s goal of ten pages a day. It’s quite the increase, but so far, it’s been achievable. If I stay on my my current pace the rough draft of book three will be complete by Thanksgiving.

So keep on reading, keep drinking your coffee, and keep on flying the Black.